Which notable Burqueños spent the night in jail? What spicy food got recalled? How did police find a cyclist's stolen bikes? And how can you track where federal stimulus dollars are going in Albuquerque?

Illiteracy traps New Mexicans in low-paying jobs, according to one coalition working to free them

By Marisa Demarco

Gilbert Zamora was a top janitor at a school in Alamogordo. He was in charge of placing the school's orders, sometimes for textbooks. He was an older man, in his 50s or 60s. And because he couldn't read, he devised a color-coded system for doing his job. "If someone messed with his system, he was vulnerable," says Heather Heunermund, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for Literacy (NMCL).

Warehouse 508 has ridden the ups and downs of the funding seesaw. The budding Downtown teen center saw its operating budget slashed by $50K and its Icehouse-rehab budget increased by $300,000 in a late-May meeting.

Wilted laurels

By Gene Grant

So we now have what's billed as the world's first Slam Poet Laureate in Danny Solis, crowned this past Saturday night, June 13, at the KiMo. Good on Danny. As a slam elder statesman, so to speak, this choice is right in the sweet spot.

El Machete's "The Cost of War" [June 4-10] cartoon speaks volumes about the expanding war on Afghanistan. I recently gave a couple of lectures in New Mexico and used it to illustrate the folly of Washington's policy. Viva El Machete!